Homegrown Lifestyle is a 12-week spring short course for people living on a large lot or small acreage who are interested in producing food for their own use in a way that sustains their natural environment. Course work typically starts in March and continues through May. Each Thursday night session has a webinar, taught by extension educators with expertise in the topics, to bring the science of getting started to the class; plus, each class offers locally organized activities for a hands-on experience. In addition to weekly Thursday sessions, three half-day local tours or workshops give course participants the opportunity to experience small–scale food production and resource conservations practices first hand.

As a participant you will:

join a local peer group of Homegrown Lifestyle participants for all webinars, tours, and workshops. This is a great opportunity to learn from each other’s experience.

receive a comprehensive resource guide of carefully-selected publications that support the content of the webinars and workshops.

have access to archived webinars and have the option to join the Homegrown Lifestyle group on Facebook, where you can get feedback from experts and participants from past courses.

Homegrown Lifestyle focuses on fundamental, scale-appropriate food production techniques and conservation strategies that smallholders and modern homesteaders can quickly put to use. It is not a farm business planning class of commercial growers.

For additional information on the Homegrown Lifestyle program contact Andy Larson, Extension program specialist, at (815) 275-3070 or allarso1@iastate.edu.